The BBC reports that pollution in Asia is an increasing concern for the global community because of its possible impacts on world climate.
Here, rapid industrialisation has led to the formation of a pollution haze which is especially marked in winter as coal burning increases.
Sulphur emissions have increased by more than one-third over the last decade.
This means that there are some interesting (and complicated) things going on with what are known as deep convective clouds. What it comes down to is this:
Some studies have suggested that accumulation of these particles is changing the properties of Arctic ice, making it absorb more of the Sun’s energy.
This would mean the ice is more prone to melting, as well as reducing the Earth’s capacity to reflect solar energy back into space.
Yikes!
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